Bengaluru: With winnability the prime criterion in selection of candidates, the state unit of BJP on Thursday retained 12 MLAs who had won seats in Bengaluru in polls held in 2013 to contest as the party’s nominees for Assembly polls scheduled for May 12.
Sources in the state unit said the leadership has finalized candidates for all Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru (Urban) and Bengaluru (Rural) districts except Vijayanagar and Govindrajnagar where the party hopes that housing minister M Krishnappa and his son Priya Krishna would defect from the ruling party. The final list, however, would be released later.
Former minister C T Ravi said: “The state election committee and core committee have reviewed (the list of candidates) with district election committees. Before shortlisting the candidates, we have interacted with mandal and district presidents. The list will be sent to the parliamentary board which is scheduled to meet in New Delhi on April 8.
We have not finalized the candidates, but took feedback from the cadre and office bearers. Based on internal and external survey reports, we have taken the feedback, and the same will be sent to the central committee. Even the parliamentary board can change our decision based on the survey conducted by the central leadership.” The 12 sitting MLAs who will be contesting again are: Jayanagar- B.N. Vijaykumar, Basavanagudi- Ravi Subramanya, Padmanabhanagar- R. Ashok, Bengaluru South- M. Krishnappa, Rajajinagar- Suresh Kumar, Malleswaram- Dr. Ashwathnarayana, Yelahanka- S.R. Vishwanath, Hebbal- Y. Narayanaswamy, Bommanahalli- Satish Reddy, Mahadevapura- Aravind Limbavali, C.V. Ramanagar- S. Raghu and Dasarahalli- S. Muniraju.
The candidates shortlisted for the other 14 seats include N.R. Ramesh or Hemachandra Sagar for Gandhinagar, Katta Subramanya Naidu or Nirmal Kumar Surana for Shivajinagar, Nandish Reddy for KR Puram, Padmanabha Reddy for Sarvagnanagar and Muniraju Gowda or Hanumantharayappa for Rajarajeshwarinagar.
The party conducted meetings with district core committee and district elections committees. On Wednesday it conducted meetings with office bearers of Bidar, Kalaburgi, Yadgir, Koppa, Raichur, Ballari, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Ramanagara and Bengaluru (Urban) districts.
On Thursday, party leaders interacted with district unit leaders of Belagavi, Chikkodi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Dharwad, Hubballi, Gadag and remaining 14 constituencies of Bengaluru On Friday, state unit leaders would meet office bearers of Mysuru, Tumakuru region to finalize the candidates. On Saturday, leaders would draw up the list of candidates for coastal and Maland districts.
So far, the party has shortlisted candidates for 137 Assembly constituencies. On Friday it would review the list of candidates for 54 Assembly constituencies and on Saturday, candidates for remaining 33 Assembly seats.
